Embodiments of the present invention are related generally to systems and equipment used in processing mass mailings of consumer related information. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention are related to auctioning systems and methods for selecting information inserts to include with mass mailings.
A large number of companies and organizations provide direct mailings to various consumers and other recipients. These typically include a piece of information related to the particular recipient at a cost related to the weight of the piece of information and associated packaging. This approach can be costly. To spread the costs, a company sending a primary piece of information may assemble information from other venders and includes that information in with its mailings. However, excess white space and weight space of the mailing may still go unused. Thus, among other things, there exists a need in the art to address the aforementioned limitation.
Yet further, providing a large amount of irrelevant or less relevant direct mailings may cause recipients to disregard all direct mailings through believing that they are generally irrelevant and do not warrant reading. Additionally, a large amount of direct mailings are detrimental to the recipients and the public in general as they must be disposed of, and ultimately end up in land fills.
Some companies that already send direct mailings have found it advantageous to include various additional information with such mailings. As just one example, various credit card companies provide offers with statements that are sent to credit card holders. An ability to provide increased control over the recipients receiving a particular direct mailing can thus be useful to such companies. One such company, First Data Corporation, the assignee of the present invention sends millions of statements out each month to credit card users. In addition to these statements, various additional information is included with at least some of these statements. FDC has developed its First Data DecisionQuest® product that allows a credit card company processing with FDC to choose which information is to be included with a given statement.
In light of these developments, improvements are needed that allow the value of advertising space to be fully exploited.